Best Service Provider Winner At Retail Jeweller UK Jewellery Awards 2023
What a week its been for the Jewellers Academy, Yorkshire ! This really is the first chance we’ve had to post since winning a National Award organised by the Retail Jewellers on behalf of the UK Jewellery Industry. As the founder of the Jewellers Academy I simply could not be more proud of the achievement this business has made in such a short time and I thank everyone for the good wishes we have received over the past week it has been unbelievable.
The phones have not stopped and we currently have to suspend all short course programs for a few weeks until things settle down. We will contact each and every applicant who has applied directly this coming weekend and discuss new dates in the coming weeks and apologise for this delay. For twenty years I’ve been training people on a small scale in goldsmithing, watchmaking, diamond setting etc and took the plunge some years ago to invest to upscale the business and create state of the art workshops to train in a similar way to that of the Swiss, which, is a completely different way of training in the industry but the results are astonishing with beginners, we also upskill current tradespersons to learn new techniques as well as introducing them to the latest machinery and tools etc. The industry is presently short of labour and I passionately believe no matter the occupation or environment one has chosen for their career everyone should undertake regular training to maintain high standards as well as to keep ahead of the game.
The category we won the award for was ‘Best Service Provider’ for training courses delivered to the UK jewellery Industry and being honest I didn’t realise the importance or enormity of this award within the jewellery Industry, but I certainly do now! There is no bigger Award!!! The Retail Jewellers put on a show in London at the Hilton with all the razzamatazz you can imagine and will be a night that will stay long in my memory …......stunning ! We met some of the loveliest people from the trade when we were there, many of whom I want to collaborate with over the coming months, it was such a friendly atmosphere. From established bespoke goldsmiths to the largest brand names in the trade, they were all there, all talented, all knowledgeable in their own field, a room full of educational possibilities...... Share your knowledge, improve the industry! I would like to work with each and every company that were there at that celebration night to help in any small way to educate and train not only the next generation but help our current tradespersons who want to improve! One should try to be better today than yesterday …...! An opportunity to improve standards across the board!
I feel working more together in the sector would make the industry stronger and more resilient in such trying times, but we must get back to basics in relation to training ….......it presently is not good enough and as an industry we must do better. The universities and colleges must talk to industry to help discover what areas talent is lacking and work out a way to solve the problem! Not just once to appease but on a regular basis to maintain high standards throughout the industry, our graduates are leaving the trade in droves and they just need direction and a little commercial training, the industry is losing too many talented people . We are recognised and respected as one of the finest global Industries and we must retain that recognition and it all starts with education and training.
‘Quality is the product of good workmanship’
